Suggested Essay Topics

1. Much Ado About Nothing is
supposedly a comedy: Beatrice and Benedick trade insults for professions
of love, and Claudio and Hero fall in love, out of love, and back
in love again. But the play contains many darker, more tragic elements
than a typical comedy. In what ways is this play tragic?

2. A central theme in the play
is trickery or deceit, whether for good or evil purposes. Counterfeiting,
or concealing one’s true feelings, is part of this theme. Good characters
as well as evil ones engage in deceit as they attempt to conceal
their feelings: Beatrice and Benedick mask their feelings for one another
with bitter insults, Don John spies on Claudio and Hero. Who hides
and what is hidden? How does deceit function in the world of the
play, and how does it help the play comment on theater in general?

3. Language in Much Ado
About Nothing often takes the form of brutality and violence.
“She speaks poniards, and every word stabs,” complains Benedick
of Beatrice (II.i.216). Find examples of
speech and words representing wounds and battles in the play. What
do Shakespeare and his cast of characters accomplish by metaphorically
turning words into weapons? What does the proliferation of all this
violent language signify in the play and the world outside it?

4. In some ways, Don Pedro is
the most elusive character in the play. He never explains his motivations—for
wooing Hero for Claudio, for believing Don John’s lie, even for
setting up Beatrice and Benedick. He also seems to have no romantic interest
of his own, though, at the end of the play, without a future wife,
he is melancholy. Investigate Don Pedro’s character, imagine the
different ways in which he could be portrayed, and ascribe to him
the motivations that you believe make him act as he does. Why is
he so melancholy? Why does he woo Hero for Claudio? Is he joking
when he proposes to Beatrice, or is he sincere? Why would Shakespeare
create a character like Don Pedro for his comedy about romantic misunderstandings?

5. In this play, accusations
of unchaste and untrustworthy behavior can be just as damaging to
a woman’s honor as such behavior itself. Is the same true for the
males in the play? How is a man’s honor affected by accusations
of untrustworthiness or unfaithfulness? Do sexual fidelity and innocence
fit into the picture in the same way for men as it does for women? Examine
the question of honor and fidelity as it relates to four male characters
in the play: Benedick, Leonato, Claudio, and Don Pedro. What could
Shakespeare be saying about the difference between male and female honor?